


Flashes Under the Steel Sky: Hojo's Lab

by Capt_BA



Series: The Steel Sky Compilation [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Gen, Hojo (Compilation of FFVII) Being An Asshole, Implied/Referenced Torture, Needles, No. 1 Let's Hang Out Sometime, POV Zack Fair, Post-Nibelheim Incident (Compilation of FFVII), Protective Zack Fair, Sephtober, Swordfighting, Virtual Reality, Whump, Whumptober 2020, Zack Fair & Cloud Strife Friendship, Zack Fair Being Zack Fair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:42:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26761567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capt_BA/pseuds/Capt_BA
Summary: Zack Fair is fine. Everything is fine. But sometimes he thinks about things he'd rather forget. And sometimes his flashbacks are so vivid, he might as well be strapped right back to Hojo's table.Double Entry for Whumptober 2020 No. 1 Let's Hang Out Sometime and Sephtober Week 1: Death - Defeat.
Series: The Steel Sky Compilation [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950040
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33
Collections: Whumptober, Whumptober 2020





	Flashes Under the Steel Sky: Hojo's Lab

Consciousness coalesced into a rhythmic pulsing beep, a steady beat matching the pulse throbbing in his neck.

His eyes fluttered open and he was staring up into cold, bright, brutal lights, tinted an eerie green. He'd seen their kind before, many times, in both his dreams and unwanted memories. They were surgical lights, mounted on an adjustable fixture.

"There we go, easy does it. Don't bring him up too quickly, yes?" The familiar voice seeped into his ears like poison.

"Of course, Professor."

Zack blinked, it seemed to take an inordinate amount of effort. He couldn't move. He concentrated all his will, putting everything he had into thoughts of escape. He had to get up, had to move, had to fight... There was a chance his fingers twitched, but it didn't matter. He could feel the heavy duty restraints holding him in place.

"Ho ho, such energy. Such determination... Give him another point five milligrams."

"Increasing tranquilizer, point five milligrams. Vitals stable, parameters acceptable."

Zack felt his body go completely limp, his mouth drifted open and he couldn't close it as the pulsing beat slowed. The surgical lamp slid from his view, replaced by a face he would see in his nightmares for the rest of his life. 

Professor Hojo looked down at him with his hideous smile and Zack would have liked nothing more than to wipe it from his face, permanently. "Now Zack, I've been looking forward to having this little chat with you, face to face, but after careful consideration I've decided the risks outweigh the rewards." His smile turned into a sneer. "You were never much of a conversationalist anyway."

Zack hoped Hojo could read the threatening look he was giving him with his eyes. Someday, somewhere, somehow, Zack would pay Hojo back for all the suffering he'd caused. The man grunted and raised an eyebrow, rubbing his chin. "See? That's what I'm talking about. Unthinking violence will never get you anywhere in this world. Just look where it's gotten you... tossed aside and forgotten."

"Here, Professor."

"Ah yes," Hojo said, and disappeared from Zack's view for a moment before returning with a familiar device. "Portable Simulation equipment, my latest design. I'd like you to help me test it out. It's extremely dangerous and will require all your fighting skills to survive. But violence is what you do best, after all. You've always been one of my favorite unwitting test subjects."

Zack accepted the fact that he'd wandered into his fair share of Hojo's experiments over the years, but he wouldn't have called himself unwitting or unwilling. Mostly, he'd just been bored and he still wasn't sure if getting on Hojo's radar had saved his life or doomed him...

Hojo slid the device over Zack's eyes and he could do nothing to resist as the world went dark. A part of Zack still hoped that Hojo would tire of their time together and simply let him go. It was looking less and less likely as Hojo kept coming up with new things to try out on him...

"Do you think he fought you seriously?" Hojo's voice echoed in the dead space as lights began blinking into existence before Zack. 

"Do you think he gave it everything he had?" The world took shape, a virtual space digitizing around Zack. "We took the footage from the reactor, but I'm disappointed to say I have very little other data to base this simulation on. He was always very careful about being monitored..."

Zack was back in the lower levels of the Mt. Nibel reactor, standing on a glass floor built over a catwalk suspended far above the swirling mako. Hojo's imitation had captured it perfectly. Whoever had designed the place had a flair for the dramatic... 

But they had nothing on Sephiroth.

He floated down from the upper levels, flying without wings. Zack still wasn't sure how he'd done it. He'd seen Genesis sprout a black feathered wing before launching himself up into the sky. When Zack was lucky, he dreamed of white feathers and angel's wings... But Sephiroth seemed to defy it all, gravity included.

Zack knew he was a simulation, but if he had learned anything about Hojo's experiments during his time with Shinra, it was not to underestimate the scientist. His simulated battles were usually designed to maim or kill his test subjects, and anything that happened in Virtual Reality, happened in real reality. Zack flexed his hands, realizing he could move in the created mental space.

"Do you think he took it easy on you? Sparing your life?"

Hojo's words seemed to come from behind Sephiroth as the simulated man regarded Zack with a cold expression. His incredibly long sword, Masamune, glinted green with the reflected light of the mako. Zack drew the virtual Buster Sword from his back, wishing he had the real thing.

"Or do you think he took you seriously? Giving it everything he had? Respecting your power as a next generation SOLDIER First Class?"

Zack would have liked answers to Hojo's questions. But he didn't see how either of them were going to learn anything by having him fight a virtual copy.

"I wonder... Did he fight you as an enemy... or a friend?"

Sephiroth slid into his stance, raising Masamune to both a perfect guard and perfect counter. He took one step toward Zack, and there was no flaw in his defense, his body poised and threatening. 

Zack wasn't sure if he was up for the fight. Even though his virtual body felt fit, his mind was exhausted from Hojo's hospitality and a strange sense of disconnect he'd been experiencing, like everything was somehow just a dream. He had no idea how long he had been held, only that his wounds had healed from his actual fight with Sephiroth. He'd seen Cloud floating helplessly in a green tank right next to where they usually kept him, but Zack still hadn't had an opportunity to make their escape.

When he wasn't floating, sedated, he was strapped to a table, sedated. The rest of the time they forced him to sleep, but they couldn't shut his mind off completely. They'd enhanced it, after all, during part of the SOLDIER reconditioning process. Zack didn't fully understand it, but he didn't need to. The Digital Mind Wave was as much a part of him as his other senses, and he knew how to use it. He knew how to ignore it, blocking it out, but he also knew how to throw himself into the reeling cascade of emotions and memories, watching scenes from his life over and over and over again... 

Somewhere inside all the collected sensory information of his career, he'd find a way to beat Hojo, rescue Cloud and escape.

After he found a way to defeat Virtual Sephiroth...

Sephiroth took another step toward Zack and Zack knew what was coming. Hojo had outfitted him with simulated materia, and he cast the protection spell, Wall, in preparation for the brutal attack that was about to happen. In the actual fight, Zack had been a little too winded from his pipe smashing fall to the lower levels to anticipate Sephiroth's obvious first move.

He wasn't going to make the same mistakes twice.

Sephiroth tightened his grip, shifting his longsword, and glared at Zack just like he had back in the real reactor fight. "Traitor."

Zack brought the Buster Sword up to block the imminent attack but Sephiroth stood frozen. Zack lowered his guard just enough to glare around the simulated room. It was going to be hard enough to survive the fight without Hojo messing with time...

Hojo didn't seem to realize that he was ruining his own experiment... or he didn't care. "Why do you think he called you a traitor? It's curious to me..."

Zack wouldn't have answered even if he'd known the reason or been able to speak. Sephiroth had been the one to betray them all, yet his anger at Zack in that moment had been personal.

It was one more thing Zack had to roll around in his mind... over and over...

Normal time resumed without warning and Sephiroth lunged before Zack was ready. The simulated warrior spun, gathering green energy as he brought Masamune twisting around his body in his opening strike, the first in a series of eight... One of his strongest special moves, Octaslash.

Zack braced his forearm against the Buster Sword, stopping Sephiroth's blade. The block was a feat in and of itself. Zack could count the number of SOLDIERs who could deflect Octaslash on one hand, and the number kept getting smaller...

The force of the attack sent a vibrating shockwave through Zack's body but Sephiroth was just getting started. He increased his pressure against Zack's guard and gave his blade a slight twist, yet somehow the power behind the motion was enough to take Zack off his feet, launching him up into the air.

Sephiroth crouched, more green energy building around him as he propelled upward to meet Zack. Zack twisted midair, bringing the Buster Sword around to block the second attack, just in time. Then the third, the fourth, the fifth and the sixth... each consecutive blow came faster, harder than the last, knocking Zack further up into the air as steel rang out against steel. Zack brought the Buster Sword down, two handed, throwing what force he had into a parry to try and break Sephiroth's seventh move, but Masamune brushed the Buster Sword aside like it was nothing, knocking Zack's guard wide open...

Zack was falling now, helpless, and Sephiroth himself shot down to the earth only to slingshot back into the air, poised to strike his final blow from above.

"You will pay."

Zack could only trust his Wall spell and try to get the Buster Sword into the path of Sephiroth's last attack. The impact sent a green shockwave blasting out around them and the force of the concussive blast seemed to hold Zack, suspended in the air, breaking basic laws of physics.

Sephiroth touched down first, a three point stance, Masamune held out behind him. Zack fell, face first into the glass floor and hit the ground so hard he bounced. In the real world, Zack could feel his body rock with the impact, his brain and the biometric materia that made up the core of the device sending signals to his nerves and tissue and bone of the damage he had sustained.

It was a familiar experience and in the virtual space, Zack grinned and got to his feet, wiping simulated blood that was trickling from his nose in reality. He was just getting warmed up. He took the pain and turned it into a weapon, focusing all his energy into his left fist. There was a new yet familiar yellow glow of concentrated power, and Zack pulled back, throwing everything he had into the Costly Punch, not caring about the consequences or the price.

His fist screamed into Sephiroth's smug face before the simulation could react and even Zack was surprised by the force of the blow. Sephiroth crashed backwards into the heavy metal walls of the reactor. His impact sent another shockwave rippling through the space, shattering the glass floor that Zack was standing on. He landed on the catwalk as glass rained down into the mako.

It was quite a different outcome than the real fight. Zack cocked his head to the side with amusement and rested the Buster Sword on his shoulder as he took it all in. Virtual Sephiroth was completely defeated, crumpled comically in an impact crater in the steel wall, Masamune dangling from his unconscious fingers.

"What!?" Hojo was not happy. "Impossible! I calibrated the system myself!"

Zack was laughing, even if Professor Hojo couldn't hear him. Hojo tore the goggles off Zack's face, ripping him back to reality so he could lock his angry eyes on Zack behind his dark spectacles.

"You! Why? Why does this always happen? What is it about you?"

Zack had so many things he wanted to say, but he settled for the slight, rhythmic exhalation that sounded something like a laugh. Hojo took Zack roughly by the chin, turning his head as though he was looking at him for the first time. His eyes lingered on the cross shaped scar on the left side of Zack's face, near his jaw.

"You've vexed me for too long... I will have answers, even if I have to rip them out of you, piece by piece..."

A PHS rang, interrupting Hojo's dark musings.

"Professor, the Turk’s here again... He's asking to see the test subject..."

Hojo stepped out of Zack's field of vision. "What? I thought you got rid of him." The other man stammered and Hojo scoffed. "Nevermind. Tell him I'm in the middle of an experiment and can't be bothered. Go."

Footsteps faded as Hojo mumbled to himself and began pacing outside of Zack's view. There wasn't much for Zack to do but lie there with his nose bleeding, possibly drooling, listening to the mad scientist ramble... 

"Recalibrate it... yes... run a full analysis of the source..." Hojo must have picked up a clipboard, Zack could hear him rustling through pages. "Nothing in the background file... a willing volunteer to the program... Not even one of the Turk's recruits... Mako tolerance off the charts, yes... Nothing else of note... Blood work is normal... Curiously mundane... Nothing out of the ordinary... Nothing..." He stopped pacing. "Hmm, of course... the Turks... How did I not realize it sooner...?" Hojo began laughing. He came back, holding a syringe and Zack could feel the needle jab into his inner elbow... could feel Hojo stealing a small portion of his life, his essence, his blood... Hojo had no right to it, but Zack couldn't stop him. 

"Those fools! They thought they could protect you? Instead they threw you to the wolves. You're  _ mine  _ now. I just hope you survive long enough to prove some of my theories..."

Hojo set the sample aside and came back, cackling as he slid the VR headset in place, covering Zack's eyes, forcing him back to the Mt. Nibel Reactor. Hojo's laughter echoed as Zack stared into the face of his virtual nemesis, floating down before him. Zack wasn't ready to face him again so soon, his pulse picked up, electronic beeping matching the pounding rhythm...

Sephiroth gave him a knowing smile and lunged...

**Author's Note:**

> A flashback sequence taken from my upcoming Remake Continuation Project - The Steel Sky. I just thought I would share this little excerpt in honor of Whumptober 2020, Sephtober and Oct 1st - Anniversary of The Nibelheim Incident.
> 
> These are a few of my favorite things.


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